Tutorial: Practicing Scales

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This is a brief tutorial video which demonstrates how I practise my scales.

Hey guys :P Ok, so I occasionally get asked for advice about the best way the practise/warm-up etc, so I thought I'd make this quick video where I filmed myself at the start of my usual warm-up routine. Please note that I'm not planning on making many of these sorts of vids at all, there are other far more established 'piano-teacher' guru's out there - but I felt that I may have something useful to offer here, hence the vid.

Ok, so this is what I do. I practise one different scale every week. Here I play B major - I chose this scale for the video as oppose to say C major, which is commonly the first scale that people learn because Chopin famously taught his students B major first, as its the scale that, once you've learnt the notes, is easiest to play :)

So, as you can see from the vid, I start from a lower metronome tempo, play the scale for one octave, hands together, one note per beat, then 4 octaves, in quavers, then in triplets, then in semi-quavers. Note that its really good to practise playing in triplet rhythm - esp as the scale doesn't exactly fit the beat, in the sense that the turn doesn't happen on the beat, nor does the whole sequence end on the beat either :P

Then I increase by 10bpms, repeat, then once again I increase by 10bpm and repeat. Here I've finished at 140bpms, which is a comfortable speed for me, I can in fact go much faster - 150 is quite comfortable but I do find that once you hit about 160bpms, it gets very difficult to count accurate semi-quaver beats for it, as they just come so fast! But yeah, the aim is to finish on a tempo setting that is like, a good upper limit for you. So, if about 95 is about your comfortable max, then start at 75, move onto 85, and finish on 95. I chose 140 here as I wanted to do this vid in one take, so picked a tempo I knew I could get down first take :P Btw, scales vary greatly in terms of difficulty! B major may be a breeze, but B melodic minor is as tricky as they come!

Next I play B major hands together, a third apart for 4 octaves - left hand starting on B, right hand on D sharp. Then I play B major hands together for 4 octaves a sixth apart, left hand on D sharp, right hand on B.

Lastly I play B major, hands together in contrary motion for 2 octaves. First I play the scale with both hands starting on B, then a third apart, left hand on B, right hand on D sharp, then a sixth apart, left hand starting on D sharp, right hand on B.

Note that I don't use a metronome for these scales, only for the normal scale versions.

So I practise each scale in this way for a week, then move onto the next one. My warm-up routine doesn't end with these scales either, after I do the above I go on to play B major arpeggios, in root position, then first and second inversions. Then I play them as broken chords - then I'll play the dominant seventh arpeggio, then the diminished all in the B. After that I'll play the B major scale in thirds for two octaves, then in sixths. Finally for scales, I'll play B major in octaves, hands together for two octaves a few times! All in all, this routine takes about 10-15mins.

Phew! So, even though I've long ago not needed to play scales for exams or what have you, the grounding I feel that they provide (as what are pieces apart from a mish-mash of scale and arpeggios passages eh :P) is so important that I still practise them every time I sit at the piano :)))

Oh, and I realise that there are a few minor tempo inconsistencies (please forgive!), but hopefully these are few enough not to detract from the overall message of the video which was to communicate one possible way of going about scale practise, as I was keen to do this vid in one take I thought that I would let them slide for the purposes of this 'instructional' message :)))

Oh, and after scales, to finish my warm-up I play through some Czerny etudes that I've been looking at - am playing 5 at the moment and I play through each one 3 times. After all that, that's when I move to play some 'proper' music :)))

I hope that this video was helpful in some way! As I said, I don't really intend to make videos like this often at all, but if someone can think of something it may be useful to do a video on, and I think that I can say something useful about it, then I may consider it for the future :P

Happy practising ^______^

On a different note, for those of you who like to read, I've written a novel - a work of absurdist fiction which falls somewhere in between Alice in Wonderland and Kafka - which can now be found on Amazon Kindle. Here is a link to the US store. The book is also available in other territories too, like the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy etc. Check it out!

http://www.amazon.com/Kierkegaards-Apple-ebook/dp/B005GLG2PK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UT...

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Tutorial
• Practising
• Practicing
• Practice
• Scales
• Practise
• Major
• Minor
• Arpeggios
• Diminished
• Dominant
• Hands
• Together
• Apart
• Piano
• Third
• Thirds
• Sixth
• Sixths
• Metronome

[daigoro789]

hey hey - thanks for the kudos!

interesting idea about playing the triplets in three octaves!

however, i think that i'll stick to the 4 octave way mainly because, with 4 octaves the turn at the end of the 4th octave isn't on the beat, therefore making it harder to stick to the beat overall! thanks once again for the insightful suggestion ^____^

happy practising ;)

[johncao2]

thanks for the video; i'll definitely be using this to practice!

[daigoro789]

@johncao2 my pleasure!

i sure hope it helps you out in some way :P

happy practising ^_____^

[dddavidshadowp]

lul u spelled practicing wrong xddd

[daigoro789]

@dddavidshadowp (1)hey hey! goodness me! thanks for the bump about that - really appreciated! well, i just looked into it and it seems asthough we are both right, in the sense that my spelling is the 'british' version, and with the 'c' is the more common american version, although both are valid :P interestingly, in 'british' english, there is actually a subtle difference in meaning between these two spellings, although, in US english, the 'c' version is used for all senses of the word (cont...)

[daigoro789]

@dddavidshadowp (2) i just looked all this up btw after your bump - lol :) yeah, so, i guess i'll change the title to the US spelling, just because there are more youtubers in the US, so it'll be easier for them to find my video in a search, but i'll keep the spelling as i had it already in the rest of the text! thanks again for the bump - hey, you learn something new everyday right ;) wishing you all the best my good sir ^_______^

[889michael1]

"A proper pianist's routine"! Thanks for the tips!

Btw, in order to make the scales in triplets sound more in tact with the rhythm, why not make them three scales instead of four? (IMHO, it works!)

[dddavidshadowp]

@daigoro789 lol you are one happy camper xd

[daigoro789]

@Raidon90 hey hey :P yeah, i guess people have many different ways of warming up - i had to learn all these scales and such when i was taking certain 'graded' piano exams that you get in the uk, so it comes quite naturally for me to practise them - oh, and its not so-so boring, esp when you play them fast and they def help with technique :P btw, my warm up continues with some etudes, so 'pieces' and i guess they are a bit more interesting to play :P wishing you all the best man ^_____^

[Raidon90]

it's very interesting to see how people warm up. me myself, i've never done that ;D

warming up for me just means to play one or two old songs, because that kind of practising is more exciting for me than the exercises you do, I can't do that it's too slow and boring for me ^^

that might be one of the reasons why my finger techniques aren't thaaat great ;D